Overloading and lack of educators, inappropriate spaces, threats to children’s safety, uneven salaries, non-compliance with standards, are the reasons for the protest by preschool unions and associations, which symbolically started at 12:05 p.m. on the main square in Zagreb on Saturday.
Trade unions and associations demand from the Government and the Ministry of Science and Education to get involved in financing the system of early and preschool education.
The goal of this, they say, is to improve working conditions and increase wages and other material rights, ensure quality work and create conditions for safe growth and development of children, and ensure a place in kindergarten for every child in Croatia, regardless of location and socio-economic status of the parents.
A protest entitled “Equality, safety and quality in kindergartens.” Or do you think you can do without us? Do you want our dismissal?!” they demand that the Law on Preschool Education be respected, that people from practice be included in the changes to all acts, that the State Pedagogical Standard be respected in its entirety, that the Labor Law be respected, and all this, they say, cannot be done without the involvement of the state.
There are about two thousand protesters from all parts of Croatia.
They are determined to fulfill their demands, but, the organizers warn, they are also afraid of pressure from the directors and founders, namely local communities – municipalities and cities.
The participants carry banners that read: “Enough is enough!”, “Kindergartens are the first step in the education system”, “When will the well-being of the child become a priority?”, “Čakovec wants a law for equality”, “Kindergartens are not detention centers, kindergartens are educational institutions” and the like.
“First of all, we expect to send a clear message and to be taken seriously because it could really happen that people don’t come to work,” said Hina Katarina Turković Gulin from the association SIDRO, which brings together educators and parents to protect children’s rights in kindergarten.
She said that the fulfillment of these demands is not a “whim, glory or honor”, but something that must be done “because this state of affairs cannot last much longer”.
Together with SIDRO, the protest was organized by the Trade Union of Education, Media and Culture, the Trade Union of Workers in Pre-School Education and Training of Croatia, the Trade Union of Education and Training of Croatia and the professional association of educators “Krijesnica” Čakovec and “Terina” Vukovar.
N1 / Vanja Kranic
He says that educators and professional associates, principals, parents, a large number of various organizations from all parts of Croatia gathered.
Turković Gulin previously warned Hina that the situation in the system is chaotic, children are placed in small and inappropriate spaces, people without pedagogical knowledge work with them because the law allows their employment. She stated that there is a shortage of about 5,000 educators, along with pedagogues, speech therapists, psychologists and educational rehabilitators.
People, he says, quit their jobs because they find better-organized and better-paid jobs.
The State Pedagogical Standard (DPS) is not respected by 80 percent of kindergartens in Croatia, Turković Gulin pointed out. Although it is prescribed that two educators work for eight children of nursery age, there are numerous examples of nursery groups where 36 children are crammed into 40 square meters, with one educator on shift. And that in repurposed attic or basement spaces.
Educators work double shifts, overtime hours are not paid.
She also emphasized that with the amendments to the Law on Preschool Education that came into effect in May, the system is decentralized, funding is left to local self-government units, so the allocated funds are different, as are the salaries of employees.
The economic prices of kindergartens are different across the country and this is discrimination against parents and children, emphasizes Turković Gulin.
N1 / Vanja Kranic
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